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Search Engine Optimization or SEO - The Critical Components to Great Search Engine Rankings
By Keith Raymond (c) 2008

When people with websites find out I'm an Internet Marketing
Consultant (http://www.netsurfmarketing.com/), the first question
I'm often asked is: "why isn't my website ranking in the search
engines?" There seems to be this assumption that "if you build
it, they will come". Many website owners are often disappointed
once their site is up that the site is ranking poorly or not at
all. They question me why it isn't and what they can do about
improving the site rankings.

If you want to improve your, or your clients', website rankings
in the search engine results of the major search engines like
Google, Yahoo and MSN, you must learn what makes a site rank
well. Not knowing what makes a page rank well is why your
competitor's website is at the top of the search engine results
and yours is not. Search engine optimization or SEO strategies
are the critical components that help your site rank well. If
you want your site to rank well in search engine results, your
page must have these 4 essential factors of search engine
optimization:

1. The first element to search engine optimization is the web
page copy and content. Search engines look for good quality,
relevant pages with the keywords your audience uses when they
search online. Each of your website pages should have the
keywords and phrases your clients are searching for on each
particular page. If your site is about "Internet Marketing
Strategies", then you should have those keywords in the web copy
of that page. The more relevant your copy is to the targeted
keywords your audience uses, the better the relevancy of the
site in the rankings for those search terms.

2. The second critical factor to help your search engine
optimization tactics are meta tags. Meta tags, often overlooked
and misunderstood, are elements of HTML coding on a website.
Search engines use these meta tags to help them determine what
the site is about and assist with indexing a website. Most meta
tags are included within the 'header' code of a website. The
most important tags are the title tag, description tag and the
keywords tag. Different search engines have different rules
about how these tags are used and how many characters they
should contain. Of importance to the process is if you know how
the big three - Google, Yahoo and MSN - review the tags, then
you'll be targeting 90% of potential web surfers.

3. The next component in your site search engine optimization
strategy is internal linking. By optimizing your linking
structure, you'll be creating a rich web of interlinking within
your site. Whenever possible include links to related products,
articles, and information. The navigation menu plays a key role
in passing deep link gain into your site. This will help pass on
your page ranking. To help out your internal page ranking, create
a site map that can help search engine crawlers find all the rich
content and related pages on your site. You should also use
anchor text when internally linking within your site. Instead of
using "click here", use keywords or phrases like "Search Engine
Optimization" (http://www.netsurfmarketing.com/
search_engine_optimization.html) as a text link.

4. The fourth factor to good search engine ranking is off page
tactics. The most common tactic is obtaining quality back links
or inbound links to your site from relevant websites. Initiating
and maintaining linking strategies is a core factor to getting
your site in Google search results. Google expresses the quality
and quantity of these back links as PageRank or PR. PageRank is
a function of the quantity and strength of inbound links.
PageRank estimates the likelihood that a given page will be
reached by a web user who randomly surfs the web, and follows
links from one page to another. In effect, this means that some
links are stronger than others, since a higher PageRank page is
more likely to be reached by the random surfer.

Some great ways to get quality inbound links include: Links
from your industry peers, business partners and associations.
There are also industry directories, such as web designer
directories and more general SEO directories where you can
submit a link to the appropriate category. You may want to
consider writing and submitting topic relevant articles to
article directories like ezinearticles.com. With every article
submission, you are allowed to include your resource box. Your
resource box can contain a link to your website. Press releases
are perhaps the most underrated tools to acquire one way links.
All you have to do is to write an objective, newsworthy press
release announcing your website, and thereafter, submit the same
to press release wires throughout the internet, such as
www.prweb.com. Press releases are also an excellent way to gain
direct visitors.

With these 4 essential tactics, you'll be accelerating your
search engine optimization strategies and on the path to higher
search engine ranking. SEO is not about tricking search engines,
but making it easier for them to spider your site or client
sites to determine the relevancy of the site. With just a few
SEO adjustments to your website and content, in no time you
could soon find your site at the top of search engine results
for your targeted keyword.
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Keith Raymond is an Internet Marketing Consultant and Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist. Learn more about Internet
Marketing strategies and Search Engine Optimization techniques
(http://www.netsurfmarketing.com/search_engine_optimization.html)
to turbo charge your website's performance and search engine
rankings.
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